Delicious snacks for LOTS of kids

Hi. I'm on snack duty for an after school club at my kids school. I was thinking of baking cookies...enough for 75 kids plus free loading adult volunteers. Any suggestions for easy and great tasting cookies to crank out? Not too sugary, but delicious. Bonus points if they are nut and dairy free. And yes, I need to bring something home made. It is just me, if I have the opportunity to feed children, I want them to have something better than the usual store bought stuff.

You are such a good Mom! Beyondcelery has a recipe for coconut lemon macaroons that she brought to our Food 52 gathering. They were so delicious and disappeared in short order! I am not much of a baker, and I found them easy to make. http://food52.com/recipes... Another source for good healthy cookies is www.glutenfreegirl.com She has some wonderful cookie recipes.

Cookies are fun, but for something different I've made mass quantities of chocolate-dipped fruit: dried apricots, cherries, pineapple, mango, figs. This usually takes care of the kids with dietary restrictions to wheat, dairy, nuts, etc., and it's fun to eat.

Little sandwiches (tea sandwiches) cut in different shapes and with fillings, no crusts, are appealing, fun, and nourishing. They also offer an alternative to sweets. Even peanut butter and jelly dresses up quite nicely this way.

You could do a slightly softer-style biscotti. I use the King Arthur Flour's Italian Biscotti recipe which is dairy-free. They're meant to be baked on the harder side, but the addition of some fat (shortening or olive oil) and/or slightly underbaking them will keep them on the slightly softer side. They're not very sweet, and you can add in any kind of mix-in you like.

I'm always amazed at how popular fruit and veggie platters are with kids, and pretty much everyone can find something they aren't sensitive too. I'm never motivated enough to make them into cute shapes, but I had a friend who brought some sort of cauliflower snowman layout into the school and the kids tore through it.

Fresh fruit with a slightly honey-sweetened yogurt sauce (you could even use almond or soy yogurt if you wanted) would be great for kids. I also loved ATL's suggestion to make tea sandwiches. But really, anything you cook will be more appreciated than the usual goldfish crackers.

A homemade chex mix would also be a great snack, in my opinion. You can control the salt, make it totally gluten free [if there are allergies] or nut free [allergies again - use seeds instead of nuts!] etc.

Or the classic no-flour peanut butter cookie could be made with any variety of nut/seed butters.

One note of caution - I'd check before you brought anything for 75 kids involving peanuts (or peanut butter, or even any tree nuts.) Many schools don't allow snacks containing them, as peanut allergies are pretty common now, and can be very serious.

You could do bamboo skewers threaded with cubes of cheese, grapes, dried fruit, etc. Not too sugary and fun.

Good point about peanut butter/nuts above. I posted about tea sandwiches . I have an additional caution. I have been an evaluator of afterschoool programs and know that any snack has to be pre-assembled as kids have to stand in line to get them (at least most of the time). Time is limited as they have to move to their activities. Anything requiring assembly at the scene slows down the schedule (unless it is an activity). Also, students are hungry and tired following the regular school day so providing the snack first is a plus to successful participation.

Thanks for all the great suggestions! There are definitely logistical issues as ATL brought up. Grab and go with as little clean-up as possible was essential so I made carrot muffins. They are half whole wheat, use a pound of carrots per batch and are dairy and nut free. I cut the sugar down from the original recipe. I do plan to try some of your recipe suggestions as they sound delicious!